1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a cover including a body and a lid, and a connection structure of a housing and the cover.
2. Background Art
For example, a technique illustrated in FIG. 1 of JP-A-2013-8561 is conventionally used for a cover that protects electric wires placed into a connector housing and pulled out from the connector housing. A cover 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 of JP-A-2013-8561 is configured so that electric wires W placed into an electric wire pull-out portion of a connector housing 2 and pulled out from the connector housing 2 are led out through an electric wire container 14.
To provide a cover configured so that electric wires pulled out from a connector housing are led out using a technique different from that disclosed in JP-A-2013-8561, the inventors developed a cover illustrated in FIGS. 19 to 27.
A connector 100 illustrated in FIGS. 19 to 27 includes: a connector housing 101; a cover 102 to be fitted to the connector housing 101; a front holder 103; a sealing 104; a corrugated tube 105 (see FIG. 22); and electric wires 108 each having an end with a terminal (or a female terminal) 106 and a rubber stopper 107 attached thereto.
The connector housing 101 is internally provided with a cavity 109 configured to contain the terminals 106. As illustrated in FIG. 20, the connector housing 101 is provided at its rear surface with terminal insertion holes 110. With the terminals 106 contained in the cavity 109, the electric wires 108 are led out through the terminal insertion holes 110. Each terminal insertion hole 110 is sealed with the rubber stopper 107 attached to the end of the associated electric wire 108.
The front holder 103 has a shape conforming to a front holder container 124 to be disposed on the bottom wall of the cavity 109.
The sealing 104 is placeable on the front surface of the connector housing 101.
As illustrated in FIG. 19, the cover 102 includes a body 111, a lid 112, and a hinge 113. The cover 102 has a substantially tubular shape.
As illustrated in FIG. 19, the body 111 has a substantially tubular shape with openings at both ends. The peripheral edge of the rear opening of the body 111 is provided with a continuous electric wire leading portion 115. The opposite walls of the electric wire leading portion 115 are each provided with a first cover engaging portion 116 protruding therefrom. The peripheral edge of the rear opening of the body 111 is further provided with a second cover engaging portion 117.
As illustrated in FIG. 19, the lid 112 is arc-shaped in cross section, and configured to be able to cover the rear surface of the body 111. The lid 112 is provided with: first cover engaged portions 118 disposed to be engageable with the first cover engaging portions 116 of the body 111; and a second cover engaged portion 119 disposed to be engageable with the second cover engaging portion 117 of the body 111.
As illustrated in FIG. 19, the hinge 113 connecting the body 111 and the lid 112 serves as a pivot when the body 111 and the lid 112 are fitted to each other.
The procedure for assembling the connector 100 will now be described.
First, the terminal 106 placed on the end of each electric wire 108 is inserted into the cavity 109 through the associated terminal insertion hole 110 of the connector housing 101. This brings the terminal 106 into engagement with a lance 120 in the cavity 109 as illustrated in FIG. 20. Then, the front holder 103 is inserted into the front holder container 124 in the cavity 109.
Subsequently, the cover 102 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow A in FIG. 20, thus inserting the connector housing 101 into the cover 102. The insertion of the connector housing 101 into the cover 102 is carried out until the front surface of the cover 102 (i.e., the surface indicated by the imaginary line C in FIG. 20) abuts against the front surface of the connector housing 101 (i.e., the surface indicated by the imaginary line B in FIG. 20) as illustrated in FIG. 21.
Subsequently, as illustrated in FIG. 22, the electric wires 108 led from the connector housing 101 are bent and inserted into the corrugated tube 105. An end of the corrugated tube 105 is assembled to the electric wire leading portion 115 of the body 111 of the cover 102. Then, using the hinge 113 as the pivot, the lid 112 of the cover 102 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow D in FIG. 22, so as to engage the first cover engaged portions 118 of the lid 112 with the first cover engaging portions 116 of the body 111, and to engage the second cover engaged portion 119 of the lid 112 with the second cover engaging portion 117 of the body 111. Thus, the body 111 and the lid 112 are fitted to each other. As a result of this procedure, the assembly of the connector 100 is completed.
The connector illustrated in FIGS. 19 to 27, however, has problems described below.
First, in rotating the lid 112 of the cover 102 in the direction indicated by the arrow D in FIG. 22 using the hinge 113 as the pivot, the hinge 113 may be distorted as illustrated in FIG. 23. Such distortion of the hinge 113 causes the first cover engaged portions 118 of the lid 112 to be out of proper engaging alignment with the first cover engaging portions 116 of the body 111. As illustrated in FIG. 24, this misalignment is likely to cause the distal end of the first cover engaged portion 118 of the lid 112 to abut against the corrugated tube 105. In view of this, in fitting the body 111 and the lid 112 of the cover 102 to each other, a worker has to carefully conduct the fitting operation so that the distal end of the first cover engaged portion 118 of the lid 112 will not abut against the corrugated tube 105 due to the distortion of the hinge 113. This unfortunately results in poor workability.
The hinge 113, which is prone to be distorted, disadvantageously causes a defective condition, such as breakage of the hinge 113, in addition to the above problems.
In inserting the terminal 106 into the cavity 109 of the connector housing 101 and engaging the terminal 106 with the lance 120, the terminal 106 may be inserted only halfway as illustrated in FIGS. 25A and 25B, and may be prevented from being disposed at a proper position illustrated in FIGS. 20 and 21. Such halfway insertion of the terminal 106 is detected on the basis of abutment of the distal end of a lance 121 of the front holder 103 against the distal end of the lance 120 of the cavity 109 when the front holder 106 not in full engagement with the connector housing 101 is pushed in the direction indicated by the arrow F in FIGS. 25A and 25B. The connector 100, however, requires fabrication of the front holder 106. This unfortunately increases the number of components and the number of assembly cycles, resulting in an increase in cost.
Fitting the connector 100 to a counterpart connector 200 illustrated in FIGS. 26 and 27 presents problems described below.
The connector 100 has many depth-direction backlashes between the connector housing 101, and the body 111 and lid 112 of the cover 102. These backlashes cause the connector housing 101 to move backward due to an insertion force exerted when an inclined surface 123 of an engaging arm 122 of the connector housing 101 is brought into sliding contact with an inclined surface 202 of an engaged portion 201 of a housing for the counterpart connector 200. As a result, a backlash indicated by the arrow G in FIG. 26 occurs. Fitting the connector 100 having the backlash G to the counterpart connector 200 causes the front surface of the cover 102 (i.e., the surface indicated by the imaginary line H in FIG. 26) to abut against a cover abutment surface 203 of the counterpart connector 200 before the engaging arm 122 of the connector housing 101 engages with the engaged portion 201 of the counterpart connector 200. This unfortunately results in inadequate engagement between the engaging arm 122 of the connector housing 101 and the engaged portion 201 of the counterpart connector 200. Such a problem hinders a reliable fit between the connector 100 and the counterpart connector 200, and eventually loosens the fit between the connector 100 and the counterpart connector 200.